A Trampoline and A Rubix Cube
by TenroseBuddies
Summary: Rose goes wandering through the TARDIS in search of the Doctor, hoping for help with a rigged Rubix Cube, and finds something worth a laugh.
1. A Trampoline

**A/N :**

 **S: I got a new mouse, yay! So now I can write more because my computer actually works now. And sports are officially over so even more writing time!**

 **I: And I met Matt Smith this weekend! He was so sweet, a total angel! Also it's my birthday today.**

 **S: Happy Birthday Isabel! Here's the story, it's gonna be two chapters.**

* * *

Rose wandered the halls of the TARDIS aimlessly, wondering where the Doctor had gone. She had woken up early that morning to the sounds of him tinkering with the console. But when she had emerged from her room a couple minutes later to talk to him about a 'problem' with a Rubix cube, he had disappeared. Now she was walking down the hallways, following a quiet musical sound and opening random doors as she went.

Through one door she found the biggest swimming pool she'd ever seen and strangely it was surrounded by towering bookshelves which probably contained every book in human history and more. She stared up in awe and saw that the ceiling above was made of glass that showed the night sky, or a night sky, the constellations were unfamiliar. She wondered how it was even possible any sort sky was visible in the TARDIS but then she remembered the TARDIS was 'infinite and the best ship in the universe' as the Doctor had said.

Rose backed out of the room and made a mental note to return there later, there were many books that needed reading. She shut the door behind her and continued down the intricate hallways, following the faint sound of music. She passed a few more doors along the way. One room held a magnificent garden, one a giant ball pit, one was entirely full of white light, and one was filled with random trinkets and baubles.

After ten minutes of exploring she finally reached a bright yellow door which was the source of the music. She assumed it was just a random room full of nothing particularly important but curiosity got the best of her and she turned the knob, peeking in. The music hit her ears and she realized that it was some sort of orchestra playing. She observed the room and saw a huge trampoline with a golden rim and upon this trampoline the Doctor was desperately trying to to do a backflip and failing completely. She stepped in fully and shut the door quietly, not wanting to make her presence known.

She looked back towards the trampoline and at that exact moment he attempted the biggest backflip yet and failed, again, arms and legs flailing as he hit the trampoline and bounced back up. Rose tried not to laugh but couldn't hold it in. Once she'd started she couldn't stop. She laughed so hard she fell onto the ground and had to sit up against the door to stay mildly upright. She didn't even notice that the music had stopped and so had the bouncing. Rose kept laughing for awhile until she finally looked up to see the Doctor standing, arms crossed, in the middle of the trampoline, looking at her like a hurt puppy.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"It's... it's just..." she struggled to catch her breath before attempting to speak again, "It's just... you... and the music... and the trampoline...!" she burst into laughter again.

"It's not funny Rose." he whined.

"It is _so_ funny!" she told him, "Who listens to classical music while jumping on the trampoline?"

"I was trying to perfect my double backflip. I saw it on YouTube; and there's nothing better for keeping focus than a little Beethoven."

" _You_ were on YouTube?" Rose asked, surprised.

"Yeah, why?" he asked.

"No reason, it's just, with all the time traveling you do I figured there'd be a better way to learn than YouTube."

"YouTube is _amazing_ Rose. I know your 2006 earth version isn't exactly perfect, but it gets much better, trust me. I've already learned how to crochet, build a life-size lego palace, fold 500 different kinds of paper airplanes," he gestured at a pile of neatly folded papers on the floor by the trampoline, "tie 50 different knots, and make an origami swan, that last one took a while."

"Well, you've still got a bit to learn on a double backflip. I bet I could do it."

The Doctor looked at Rose silently daring her to do better than him as she turned the music back on a quiet volume and climbed onto the trampoline. She was hoping her years in gymnastics when she was younger would lend a hand. She would really love to finally be better than the Doctor at something. She walked to the center and jumped once, twice, three times and flipped a perfect double backflip.

"How... how...?" the Doctor stuttered.

"Gymnastics." Rose replied simply.

"Well. I can do that too." he said defiantly.

He came to the middle of the trampoline and started bouncing up and down. On his fourth jump he tried to do his backflip but only made half a rotation before falling flat on his face. Rose started laughing again.

"Rose..." he pleaded, "Help me."

"I don't know how." she replied, "I've never taught anyone, it just kinda happens. You either can or you can't, and I don't know how much practice you're gonna need."

"Oi!" he yelled, "I am fully capable of doing a backflip! I'm sure it's in my memory somewhere." He jumped and tried to flip again but failed.

"Well, keep trying," Rose told him, "and don't give up. But don't take too long, I've got a Rubix cube I need help solving."

"A Rubix cube!?" he shouted, "Fantastic!" he flipped in excitement and completed his first ever perfect double backflip. He gasped, eyes wide with happiness, "I did it! I did it! Rose did you see, did you see?!" he flipped again, "Look Rose," and again, "I can do a double backflip!"

"I see that." she said, climbing off the trampoline, "It's awesome!" Rose walked to the stereo and turned the music up as the Doctor did another excited backflip. He was still flipping when she closed the bright yellow door behind her and went to go find the Rubix cube.


	2. A Rubix Cube

**A/N:**

 **S: Chapter two! I have the worst cold right now and I just wanna watch Doctor Who and write fics but I have school and homework, and actual work.**

 **I: I'm going laptop shopping on Friday so hopefully I'll be able to start posting lots of new fics!**

* * *

Much later the Doctor sat on the floor of the console room with a piece of grating pulled up, fiddling with various thingamabobs underneath. Pieces of the TARDIS were all around him in small piles and at the moment he was trying reattach them backwards just to see what would happen. The TARDIS was never broken, the Doctor just 'fixed it to work better', as he'd said, which usually made it worse.

He was so busy tinkering that he didn't notice Rose walk in holding a very colorful and very messed up Rubix cube. Rose had mismatched all the squares and was certain the Doctor would be itching to solve it the second she brought it to his attention. He'd been very excited about it earlier, but by now it had probably slipped his mind, his attention span was very short.

She noticed he hadn't heard her come in so she spoke up,

"Doctor." she said.

His head snapped up and he stopped what he'd been doing immediately.

"What?" he asked, "Is it finally time for another adventure? It's been eight hours since we last ran for our lives. I've got some great planets planned. There's this one where the sky is yellow and the only inhabitants are-"

"Doctor!" Rose interrupted, "I've got a problem I need you to solve."

"What!? A problem?! What's wrong Rose? Are you hurt? Did someone die?! Nobody died right?! Right?!"

"Doctor-

"Oh Rassilon, somebody died! Who was it?! Do I know them? Rose! Rose!-"

"Doctor!" Rose shouted, "Nobody died! Everyone is perfectly fine. Stop panicking."

"What's wrong then? What's the problem?"

Rose held out the Rubix cube, "I can't figure this out and I need help."

The Doctor, as Rose had guessed, was very eager to help solve the cube. If Rose needed his help, he would help her. He took the cube from her hand and gazed at it thoughtfully, a vague expression of remembrance on his face. It seemed to Rose he had completely forgotten about it.

"Oh yes! I remember now. This little thingamabob, how does it work again?" he asked her as he slowly rotated the cube, observing all the sides equally.

"Well," she started, "you twist it like this," she grabbed the Rubix cube and twisted one of the sides, "and the point is to get each side to one solid color."

"Okay." he said and took the cube back to try and solve it, "It shouldn't be too difficult." What he didn't know however was that Rose had messed with the Rubix cube to make it impossible to solve.

He started to twist the sides in every direction very quickly. If it had been a normal Rubix cube he would've had it solved in seconds. Rose watched his fruitless efforts, trying to keep a straight face so he wouldn't know the truth about the impossible puzzle.

He kept at it for a while, growing more and more determined as the minutes passed, until he stopped abruptly with a frustrated expression.

"Why won't it work?!" he asked Rose desperately. "It should be solved by now!"

"Come on, don't give up, you never give up. You're the Doctor." Rose told him with a matter-of-fact tone.

"Yes, yes I am!" he said confidently.

"And you can do this!" Rose encouraged.

"And I can do this!" he replied excitedly.

With a determined expression he redoubled his efforts at the cube. Rose tried with all her might to keep a straight face but her resolve was slipping. She knew that if she stayed in the console room any longer she might laugh and the Doctor would become suspicious. Going to her room was her only hope of not laughing so she decided that's what she'd do.

"Doctor," Rose stated, "I'm going back to my room to read, you keep working on that cube."

"But Roooose..." he whined, "I don't think I can solve it."

"Yes you can." she replied, "And maybe when it's solved we can go on an adventure."

"Really?" he asked.

"Really." she responded.

"Okay!" he said excitedly and began working on the cube in earnest once more.

Rose turned her back and started to walk back towards her room. She barely made it out of earshot before she began laughing uncontrollably. She stumbled down the hallway and took a wrong turn, ending up in the library. When she finally stopped laughing and realized where she was, Rose shrugged and walked to the Earth, 2007 section and took "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" off the shelf. She knew it was kind of cheating to use the TARDIS library, as the book hadn't actually been published yet on her version of earth, but she definitely couldn't wait for it to come out .

Rose sat down on the comfiest chair in the library and began to read. Every once in a while she'd hear a 'bang' or 'crash' and look up from her book lazily, assuming it was just the Doctor 'fixing' the TARDIS. After an hour or so she figured she should probably go and make sure the TARDIS was alright, and see if the Doctor had managed to solve the impossible puzzle. Rose stood up and reluctantly closed her book, then proceeded to walk down the hallway towards the console room. She expected to find the Doctor there but he was missing. Where could he have gone? She wandered aimlessly through the halls in search of him and in less than a minute she was outside the Doctor's room. She thought the TARDIS had probably led her there so she tentatively opened the door.

The sight before her was hilarious and sad at the same time. The Doctor was lying splayed out in the middle of his bed with tear tracks down his cheeks. All over the room were little pieces of the Rubix cube. It looked as though he had taken it apart to try and solve it but failed miserably.

"Doctor?" Rose asked cautiously.

He looked up at her with a surprised expression and sat up abruptly, "Oh! Rose!" he started, attempting vainly to wipe the tears from his cheeks and cover up the pieces of Rubix cube. "This is just... erm... an experiment! Yes, an experiment! I was trying to-"

"Doctor," Rose interrupted sternly, "no it's not, don't lie to me. You look..." she searched for the right word, "...broken. Are you alright?"

"I'm perfectly fine Rose, don't worry about me." he replied, obviously fibbing.

"Okay, tell me what's wrong." Rose said, though she guessed she already knew the answer.

"Rose-"

"Now." she insisted.

"Well..." he said, "I was trying to come up with a new game! These... things," he gestured at the mangled bits of Rubix cube, "are part of it! They're used for... erm... pieces! They resemble..."

Rose broke into his stuttering, "Stop. You are rubbish at excuses, don't even try."

He hung his head in defeat.

"Did you break the Rubix cube because you couldn't figure it out?" she asked.

"No." he said, "I tried to fix it because it wouldn't work. There was no solution. Why was there no solution?"

Rose looked at him with a guilty expression.

"Rose..." he started, "Why do I feel like you're not telling me something?"

She decided it was too late now to feign ignorance so she was going to own up to it, "It was me."

"What?" the Doctor looked confused.

"I messed with the Rubix cube, I made it impossible to solve." she replied.

A smile slowly spread across the Doctor's face and Rose couldn't help but smile herself.

"What...? Aren't you mad?" she asked.

"Mad? Why would I be mad? I'm overjoyed! The cube _was_ impossible! I thought I'd been defeated by a puzzle from earth! No offense but earth puzzles aren't _that_ challenging. But now I need one that hasn't been tampered with, I've got to prove I can solve it!"

"Doctor, you don't have to prove anything. I know you can solve it. The real question is, when's our next adventure?"

"Adventure? You want adventure? Right this way Miss Tyler!" he said and ran off down the hallway full speed, Rose trailing after him.


End file.
